Midgley, Novak, Remembrance, And Modernity

[Maidservant]

Well, I understand that remembrance is a spiritual teaching or doctrine--something we do. And, not least, it's all over in the Book of Mormon. But does that rise to the level of an identity piece? Particularly if we are thinking about all the members of the Church across the world today? I think the Remembrance identity can be said to exist most greatly in our tying ourselves back to the Pioneers Crossing the Plains. We do treks every year in our community. But I just wonder if this is the same kind of essential remembrance that can be said of Judiasm. So I know remembrance is a faith practice and a deep teaching--but does it create our Mormon identity?

[volgadon]

Well, I understand that remembrance is a spiritual teaching or doctrine--something we do. And, not least, it's all over in the Book of Mormon. But does that rise to the level of an identity piece? Particularly if we are thinking about all the members of the Church across the world today? I think the Remembrance identity can be said to exist most greatly in our tying ourselves back to the Pioneers Crossing the Plains. We do treks every year in our community. But I just wonder if this is the same kind of essential remembrance that can be said of Judiasm. So I know remembrance is a faith practice and a deep teaching--but does it create our Mormon identity?

It does, Many places around the world have held their own handcart treks, for instance, Legacy and Our Heritage are available in many languages, as are church history films, there are plenty of manuals dealing with church history, families of missionaries often send copies of books such as the Work and the Glory to members that can read English, missionaries from other lands are taken on tours of Temple Square, and I personally know a large Armenian family that used the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times manual for FHE.

Which is not to say that there aren't other currents opposed to "American" elements.

Edited March 5, 2013 by volgadon